One day, many years ago now, someone was demonstrating their paint gun for me. I remember holding one of the paint-filled orbs in my hand and remarking "What if they put mace in there instead of paint?"...someone obviously had the same basic idea, and now there are pepper ball guns.
But I never saw this one coming...
I was searching around the web the other day looking for information on lightning research, specifically, the use of lasers to trigger lightning discharges. I eventually came across some information describing how this principle is being applied to a form of weapon called a Plasma Channel Taser, where, instead of darts and wires, this thing would fire two UV laserbeams, ionizing a straight path through the air to the intended target, through which would then be sent the taser's stunning electric charge. Anyone heard of this? What's next... "Blasters"?
emrad

Rian, I'd have to go hunt for a link... there were several sites where I found stuff to read about this thing; some more informative than others.
Just run a web search for "Plasma Channel Taser".
Yeah, the phrase, "A bolt from the blue", might soon take on a whole new meaning, you know?